In William Golding's allegory, Roger represents sadism. When he is first introduced to readers, he "kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy." The first depiction of Roger comes in Chapter Four when he stoops and picks up a stone, "that token of preposterous time" and bounces it a few yards from the littl'un Henry who sits on the shore:

Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.

In Chapter Seven, Jack decides to hunt for a pig and taunts Ralph into accompanying him. When Robert pretends to be the pig, Rogers fights to get close. Later, too, Roger becomes a shadowy presence:

Roger, uncommunicative by nature, said nothing. He offered no opinion on the beast nor told Ralph why he had chosen to come on this mad expedition. He simply sat and rocked the trunk gently....Roger was banging his silly wooden stick against something....impervious Roger....

Roger follows Ralph and "lay behind him"; he "bumped fumbled with a his of breath and passed onwards."

In Chapter Eight, when the hunters find a pig, Roger prods

with his spear whenever pigflesh appeared....Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight.

That Roger has descended into savagery is evinced in Chapter Eleven when he takes up

a small stone and flung it between the twins, aiming to miss. They started and Same only just kept his footing. Some source of power began to pulse in Roger's body.

Ralph tries to call a meeting and reorganize the boys, but he and Piggy are met by "the storm of sound." High above,

High overhead, Roger, with a sense of deliriuous abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever.

A huge rock strikes Piggy, sending him through the air where he falls forty feet and lands on his back across the square red rock in the sea.

In Chapter Twelve, Sam tells Ralph, "You don't know Roger. He's a terror." Then, "Roger sharpened a stick at both ends." Clearly, the sadism given free rein, Roger becomes more and more brutal and sadistic.